The electrophysiology of the multistable Perception: The Necker cube paradigm

Abstract

In previous studies, a perceptual switching related potential was obtained during the observation of a multistable dynamic reversal pattern like the Necker cube, where the averaging of the single responses was triggered by the button press of the subjects. The present methodological study aims to increase the signal quality of perceptual switching related potentials considering the dependence of the measurement method on the decision processes and the reaction time of the subject, which may very significantly during a session, leaving to a low amplitude waveform in the averaged ERP. To overcome this problem in measuring the electrophysiological correlate of an internal event, a pattern selection method based on the Wavelet Transform (WT) is proposed ta choose a subset of single ERPs with more homogenous latencies. Subjects observed Necker cube as a stimulus. The most dominant feature representing the averaged ERP was delta coefficient occurring at 250 ms before the button press. In later step of the study, we found significantly increased delta power and decreased alpha power during the perceptual reversal related positivity.